The Beast Within
by CovenantGirlLoki
Summary: A military program gone wrong. A brother lost. A friend gained. A new start. A new team. A new adventure. Same old problem. It's hard being a shifter. Especially when you're a Loser. Shifter AU. C/J Chapter 2 now up
1. Prolouge

**I Own Nudda (surprise surprise)**

Prologue

Carlos 'Cougar' Alveraz would look back at this moment with regret. He should have known better. He should have thought ahead and realised that the pain wasn't worth the gain. Sure the program offered enough money that he would be able to buy his mama a new home, a place where she wouldn't have to sleep on a bamboo bed in the corner of the living room. Admittedly the program did have some perks physically wise. Enhanced speed, enhanced stealth, enhanced senses of sight and hearing. Not to mention the new found grace that his once awkward body now flowed with.

But still…the program had many cons to outweigh the pros. The death of his brother being the main one. As it turned out the human body wasn't built to withstand that much pain all at once. Apparently Carlos had a strange gene that allowed him to handle extreme pains, this gene was the reason he had been chosen for the program. The program controllers had thought that his brother had possessed the same gene…they were wrong. Carlos' younger brother didn't make it through the first transformation. Carlos had found out when he had woken up three days later.

The death of his brother had not been the first, however it had been the last. After his passing the program had been officially closed down the subjects were told to pack up and go. Carlos was one of the lucky ones, thanks to his prior military training he was allowed to go back into the military where he was hired out from team to team, anyone who needed a sniper.

But then again in this moment Carlos didn't know that all this was going to happen. All he knew was that between his brother and himself the two would be able to provide for their family and they would be given the chance to be something special. So without a moment's hesitation Carlos signed his name along the dotted line.

_~l~L~l~L~_

Jake Jensen didn't know the meaning of the word hesitation. It wasn't something that a Jensen did nor was it something that a Jensen ever thought about doing.

So for the life of him Jake Jensen didn't understand why his hand wavered and hovered over the paper. All he had to do was sign the dotted line…so why hadn't he?

After all he didn't know that in the months that followed he would be put through absolute hell, both physically and emotionally. He didn't know that the first test would damn near kill him. He didn't know that he would have to watch the men around him die off one by one because they weren't strong enough to handle the transformations and the pain associated.

But then again he also didn't know that in the months that followed he was going to meet the best friend that he could have ever asked for. A man he learn to fear and respect for his strength and a man he would have to comfort when he lost someone very close to him.

A man he would learn to love.

So shrugging off the strange sensation of what must have been hesitation and scribbled his excuse of a signature along the dotted line.

**A/N Ok so this story was inspired by the always outstanding Cougar's Catnip! It may not seem very happy at the moment but hopefully I'll be able to fix that. I warn you I just started year 12 so don't be surprised if the updates are...well random and with long (loooooonnnnng) pauses in between **


	2. Introductions Aside

Chapter 1: Introductions Aside

Clay sighed. Rouge was going to have a coronary. His second in command was a very volatile man, and he had already made it clear he was against the idea. Pooch…well Pooch was normally the calm one out of the three permanent Losers…but then again in the rare moments that the man lost his cool his bite truly was worse than his bark.

But the team needed more than just a womanising leader, a scary as shit SIC and a whipped driver. They needed a reliable sniper and a tech that wouldn't get themselves blown up. So far the two who were waiting in his office were the best options. Not to mention that they were coming with high recommendations and were a two for one deal.

The only drawback was that both men were once a part of a failed military 'program' that left them…well…for lack of a better word, changed.

Opening the door to his office Clay inspected the two men in front of him, both stood at attention with their eyes forward. "At ease men." Clay said casually as he took a seat behind his desk, gesturing for the men to sit. As they did Clay assessed the way the two men moved. The shorter of the two, Carlos aka Cougar, moved silently, easing into the seat. Whereas the taller man, Jake aka Jensen, was practically bouncing in his chair, his bright blue eyes darted around the room, never lingering on one thing for longer than a few minutes.

"Now the two of you have been sent to me because you are the best at what you do. But let me just make this clear: no one really cares what happens to my team but they all know that when things need to be 'taken care of' we get shit done. They call us the Losers because they expect us to lose and my team takes great pleasure in proving them wrong. Now I know about the program you were once part of and I know about the side effects that it left you with so let me make this clear. I don't care what happens as long as it doesn't mess up our missions or the team dynamic."

Clay then turned to face the sniper, who had been sitting patiently with an emotionless (somewhat unnerving) expression, "Bare it in mind that our team doesn't have a spotter so on missions you'll be alone. I have been assured that that won't be a problem from your previous CO's. But I want to know from you, will this be an issue?"

Cougar shook his head and with a barely there smile replied, "No problem, sir."

Clay smiled and nodded before turning to the hacker. "Now I know that most hackers have to sit in an office and hack from a distance but in my team the hacker is required to do more than just that. I don't just need a hacker I need a soldier. I'm told that you are one of the best at both."

"Oh yeah! If you need someone shot, I'll shoot 'em. If you need the pentagon hacked into I can do it in seven minutes. I know because I've timed myself. Now before you start I know that it's technically illegal to hack the pentagon but come on their security has some major flaws! I mean in seven short minutes I had access to everything. If I wanted to I could have bombed England, not that I did! Obviously people would have heard about it if I did-"

"Alright! I get it!" Jensen's old CO's hadn't been kidding when they said the man could talk to a brick wall for days on end without so much as taking a breath. "So, felony aside, are the two of you in or out?"

_~l~L~l~L~_

Rogue and Pooch were sitting in their room on base, trying to out cheat each other in a game of go fish. Pooch held three four of hearts, under the table he held a second deck. Of course the other spare deck was currently under Rogues leg. Needless to say this had been a very long game of go fish.

"So do you think that Clay is still going to bring in the shifters?" Pooch said casually, not wanting to aggravate the man before him.

It didn't work. Rogue growled. "The fuck-tart probably will just to spite us."

Pooch rolled his eyes, "Oh come on! I'm sure whoever they are they aren't that bad! What do you have against shifters anyway? Did one try to bite you or something?" he asked teasingly.

Rogue scolded, "No! They're unnatural! It's sick what the government will do just to one up the enemy! I mean who the hell experiments on their troops when they know that it could kill them!? Any threes?"

"Go fish," Pooch actually had four threes in his hands. "Ok so I get that you're against the program but why the guys in it? Any twos?"

Rogue handed over the card before 'scratching his leg' and grabbing an extra card. "Look any one in that program was either there because they're stupid or they're out for a quick buck." He stated rather matter of factly.

Before Pooch could answer the door opened and Clay waltzed in. "Hey Losers, meet the latest Sniper and Tech: Cougar and Jensen. Let's see if we can keep them alive for longer than a month." Two men stepped into the room. One was shortish in comparison to the other. He had tanned skin that suggested a foreign ancestry, maybe Spanish; he had brown eyes that took in everything in the room with the detailed intensity that only a sniper could possess. He had shoulder length hair that was covered by a leather cowboy hat that looked as though it had seen better days.

The other man was at least a head taller than the sniper. His bright blue eyes shown from behind non-standard issue glasses. From the thickness of the lenses the man must have been half blind without them, making him the tech head of the two. His eyes were only out shone but the hideously bright green shirt the man wore, on it was a picture of a zombie saying 'Brains? Ain't no one got time for dat!'

The hacker stepping into the room with the eagerness of a puppy, "Hi! I'm Jake, but you can call me Jensen."

Pooch stood up and smiled his easy-going smile, shacking Jensen's hand he introduced himself, "Names Pooch. And that bucket of sunshine is Rogue. Don't let the 'I'm a mean ass hole' exterior fool you; he really is a mean ass hole." Jensen chuckled and the sniper, Cougar, smirked.

Rogue ignored Pooch's comment and went to shake Cougars hand, "Rogue. I'll be you're SIC. I don't like bull shit so bull shit me and I'll kick your arse so fast it'll take you a week to catch up with it again. Got it?"

Cougar smirked. Grasping Rogues hand with his own calloused one he said, with a thick Spanish accent, "Si, no bull shit."

Clay, who had been watching from the door, shook his head sheepishly. "Outstanding." He muttered before raising his voice. "I'm going to go get the brief for our next mission. It'll be in three days' time, till then," he looked at Rogue and Cougar, who were staring each other down, pointedly, "Play nice." And with that he left the men to sort themselves out, not wanting to have to deal with the inevitable fight for alpha.

Once Clay had left Jensen turned to Pooch, "So watcha guys playing?"

"Go Fish, wanna play?"

_~l~L~l~L~_

"Ok seriously! This is ridiculous! How the hell is this game still going!?" Jensen whined as he watched the other three men in the room. They had been playing for the last hour. Cougar had picked up on the extra deck that the driver and SIC had and saw no reason not to slip his own spare pack from his pocket into the game. Jensen- sweet, naïve, innocent Jensen- had ran out of cards forty minutes ago and had been sitting there pouting as he waited for the game to end.

Cougar smirked. Rogue just glared at the hacker, "Shut your mouth or I'll shut it for you."

To Pooch and Cougar's surprise and to Rogues irritation, Jensen rolled his eyes, not at all phased by the threat, "You said that before and yet my mouth is still open, see?" Jensen opened and closed his mouth to prove his point.

Pooch decided to step in before Rogue made good on the threat. "Actually I think we outa stop too, I'm losing feeling in my ass."

Jensen immediately perked up at the idea of doing something (anything) else. "Now what?"

Cougar glanced at the clock before looking over at his rifle bag with a half longing half torn expression. Jensen noticed and chuckled. Pooch raised his brow in question. "I'm presuming that you guys know we're shifters?" Pooch nodded, Rogue tried not to snarl. "Well one of the not so fun, but kinda amusing, side effects on Cougs is his instinct to make sure his things are clean. Thankfully his yet to actually start licking his rifle but he can't go more than two hours without cleaning it." Jensen laughed at the death glare on the snipers face.

Rogue and Pooch took a moment to absorb the information. Rogue spoke first, "Well, do what you have to do." Cougar nodded his thanks before walking over to his weapon. Pulling it apart with experienced hands he easily pulled out the cleaning rag and began the relaxing task of cleaning.

Pooch observed the sniper with a curious look, "So…what exactly are your…animal forms?" he asked hesitantly.

Jensen didn't seem to notice his hesitation, although Cougar stiffened slightly, and happily answered, "Well Cougar, true to his name, shifts into a cougar." This earned a smirk Rogue. "And mine is a coyote. Our animal-selves aren't really friends, feline and canine and all that!" he said nonchalantly. "Shifting together has ended with more than a few bites and bruises, hey Cougs?" Cougar simply nodded and smirked.

Pooch absorbed the information with his usual easy going smile. "So how often do you guys…you know…shift it?" he asked awkwardly.

"Not too often. Once a month on the new moon...and whenever our anger gets out of control." Jensen added thoughtfully.

"And how often does that happen?" Rogue growled.

"It doesn't. It's just a possibility." Cougar spoke up for the first time. The man had been so quiet that the others had all but forgotten he was there.

Clay chose this moment to walk into the room. "You kids playing nice?"

"Clay, a word?" Rogue snarled as he stepped out of the room.

"Oh joy…" Clay muttered before following him out. "What is it?"

"Are you sure that these two are a good idea?" the SIC said the moment they were alone.

Clay sighed; he had been expecting this, "Yes. Cougar is possible the best sniper that I've ever seen and Jensen can hack into the pentagon in less than ten minutes and is trained as a Spec Ops soldier. They are both more than qualified so what do you really have against the two?"

"They're shifters." He replied simply, as if that explained everything.

"They're soldiers." Clay retorted.

Rogue grumbled, sensing that he was fighting a losing battle. "We'll see. Any sign of trouble and they're gone! Got it?"

Clay just smirked.

**A/N Ok so hello again, first off don't ask how you cheat at Go Fish, because seriously I have no idea but i figured the guys would find a way. Also this is meant to be beta'd but my beta has sorta failed to get back to me so unbeta'd it is *thumbs up***

**Tell me what you guys think?**

**CGL**


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